


Book II: Earth

by snap_snap_snap



Series: Sam's the Avatar and Dean's Still Got Self-Worth Problems [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 22:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2405714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snap_snap_snap/pseuds/snap_snap_snap
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Second book of Sam Winchester's adventure as the Avatar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Impala’s large enough to handle their weight for more than half an hour now, though she doesn’t like to do it. She grunts and stops randomly when forced to do things she doesn’t want to, and it seems to always be Dean that manages to convince her to work and actually transport them. For as much as he hates flying, Dean seems to love Impala. To be frank, it was more than adorable, but if you ever bring it up Dean will probably punch you in the mouth before you can utter another word.  
             On the other hand, Castiel and Dean won’t shut up about getting Sam a waterbending teacher. Yeah, sure, so what if Sam’s being more than a little reluctant about getting some random old guy to teach him how to freeze water with his mind? He’s the Avatar, and has a lot of pressure on him! Besides, whenever he thinks about getting a teacher his thoughts always lead back to the Fire Nation shortie who saved him from that old guy (his name was Zachariah according to Cas’s friends, if that's what you'd call them) at the Air Temple. He doesn’t even know his name, really, but still. His mind is set. That’s who he wants as his teacher.  
             Sam is brought out of his thoughts by Cas continuing their earlier conversation.  
             “You’ve never gone into the Avatar State except for the time during the raid on my temple?” Castiel asks, shock clear as day on his face.  
             “Nope, not once. Why?”  
             “I feel as though that that might become a hindrance later.”  
             “Aw, c’mon, Cas,” Dean interjects. “Lighten up. So what if he doesn’t get his glow on all the time? How bad can that be? At least he isn’t going Terminator all the time.”  
             A beat passes.  
             “I don’t understand that reference.” Cas announces. Even Sam looks confused.  
             Dean squirms in discomfort as both of their gazes are turned onto him. “I read it in a book, okay? Jesus.” The two seem to accept this as a good enough explanation.  
             “Back onto the topic at hand, if Sam never goes into the Avatar State, he will never gain the information he needs to defeat the Fire Lord.”  
             “Oh,” the brothers both reply in slight surprise and complete dread.  
             “How do I get into the Avatar State?” Sam inquires.  
             “I’m not sure. I only know what the monks taught me, and from that I can only assume there are two ways: you either must be in grave danger, or must be in a very spiritual place.”  
             “Okay. Dean, wanna shoot rocks at me until I start glowing?” Sam jokes with a grin. Dean shoves his arm playfully and Sam continues. “What sort of spiritual place? Like a temple? Should we go back to the Air Temple?”  
             “No, I believe that a temple dealing with fire might be more effective. Have none of your past lives ever contacted you in dreams or something along those lines?” Sam shakes his head, and Cas sighs. “Then Dean shooting rocks at you, however dangerous that is, might be our fastest and simplest option for getting you to ‘get your glow on’ as Dean has put it.” Cas replies, air-quotes and all.  
             Sam groans and pushes his palms against his eyes in irritation. “I’m gonna fail. I swear to God I’m gonna fail.”  
             “Sammy, don’t worry. We got this!” Dean replies hopefully.  
             “There’s three of us versus a nation of people who want to burn you two alive and tuck me away in a dungeon and brainwash me. I don’t think we’ve got this!”  
             “So what! Like you said, three of us, and three _other_ nations who we can probably convince us to help us out.”  
             “I agree with Dean, Sam. All is not lost. You are the last hope for many people, so the last thing anyone needs is for you to lose hope as well,” Cas concurs.  
             “We need a name. Team Free Will! We’re TFW,” Dean exclaims.  
             “Why do we require a name?” Castiel’s brow furrows in confusion.  
             “Because Dean sometimes likes to act like thirteen-year-old-girl,” Sam declares with a bitchface.  
             “Hey, it works. And now we have something to call ourselves!”  
             “But why Team Free Will? Anti-Fire Nation Squad works fine,” Sam responds with a partial shrug.  
             “Because, we’re not just up against the Fire Nation. We’re against oppression in general! It just happens that the main form of oppression right now is a bunch of firebending dickheads with inferiority/superiority complexes or whatever.”  
             Sam puts up his hands in surrender. “Good enough explanation for me.” Castiel gives a curt nod of approval and then the trio breaks apart, Sam and Cas going to train a bit more for whatever reason and Dean going to feed Impala.

“So, the next thing on the to-do list, since you’ve learned everything Cas can teach ‘ya, is water.”  
             “Yep,” Sam replies to Dean’s statement needlessly.  
             “I suggest we head towards the Northern Water Tribe. It is the closest, aside from the Foggy Swampy Tribe, but I think Sam might find a better master at the North Pole,” Cas announces and Dean nods in agreement, but Sam doesn’t move.  
             “Why are you both insisting that I find a master?” Sam suddenly inquires, his random outburst surprising both his brother and his brother’s less-than-secret-(probable)-crush.  
             “Because you need to master the element of water,” Castiel replies with a tilt of his head. “Why would you not try to find a master?”  
             Sam awkwardly bounces on the heels of his feet and stares at his shoes for a second before sighing and announcing, “When we fought Zachariah, we had help.”  
             “Uh, yeah, Sam, we know,” Dean responds. “We were there, remember? The Air Nomads helped out once we freed ’em.”  
             “No, I mean, before that. I went to the Avatar State and fought for a while, but before I could fight Zachariah I came out of it. I was kinda out of it at the time, but I remember Zachariah coming at me, ready to kill me, when someone stopped him.”  
             “Wait, what?” Dean exclaims. “So you’ve know about this the whole time, and you never thought to tell us?!”  
             “I don’t think he wants me to tell! I don’t think he actually meant to help me in the first place!”  
             “Oh, really? And why is that?” Dean asks, anger still clear in his voice.  
             “I’m pretty sure he’s Fire Nation…” Sam responds slowly.  
             “Fire Nation?! Why the Hell would a Fire Nation soldier/native/anything help _us_? You, in particular!”  
             “I don’t know! But, he— he wanterbended. I don’t think he can firebend. He waterbends, which is why I don’t think I should say who he is.”  
             “Sam, what do you think we’re gonna do? Tell on him?”  
             “No, but, still. I want him to teach me, and I doubt he will if I give away his big secret.”  
             “Sam, just tell us who he is!”  
             “No, Dean, I won’t.”  
             “And why for the love of all that’s holy do you want _him_ to teach _you waterbending_?”  
             “Dean, he managed to not only fatally stab Zachariah without anyone noticing, but he also managed to get close enough to stab him from hardly a few feet away and then get away without being caught.”  
             “How do you know he wasn’t caught after?” Dean’s still pissed, obviously, but he‘s calmed down a lot. Now he just looks annoyed.  
             Sam shrugs in response. “I dunno. I’ve got a gut feeling.” Before Dean could retaliate, Sam ends the conversation by saying, “I want him to be my teacher, and that’s final.”  
             Dean sighs in defeat, but he makes Sam agree that they’ll head towards the Northern Water Tribe anyway as a backup plan.

It’s been a day or two since the argument, with Sam still not budging on giving up the guy’s name or describing what he looks like, but Dean’s decided he’ll just keep asking until Sam gets too annoyed to _not_ tell him.  
             Today, like the day before, is a boring one full of travel and Impala’s hatred of making anything too easy, when, once again, a shortie and another guy seem to come out of nowhere and try to set them on fire.  
             “What the fuck!!” Dean yelps in a _very_ “manly” fashion, shoving up rock walls and shooting them forward full-force as he tries to not let anyone get burned. He and Cas keep fighting, but the other two use the same trick as before and the older guy basically sets everything relatively close to Dean’s feet on fire and manages to distract him and Cas and the next time Dean turns to tell Sam to do something Sam isn’t there. “Goddammit! Fuck!” he shouts, along with a plethora of other colorful words, as he and Cas fight the old guy with everything they’ve got (which isn’t much, mind you, due to travel and general soreness).

This isn’t going to work out for Michael and he knows it. Why did he go along with this again?

Gabriel doesn’t bother hiding himself at all this time. Instead he just walks up and pushes a sharp blade made of ice against the Avatar’s throat and drags him backwards.  
             “I didn’t tell anyone,” Sam declares in a deceivingly nonchalant voice.  
             “Thank you.”  
             “If you were really thankful, you’d take the icicle off of my throat.”  
             “Fair enough, but capturing you is the only way to restore my chance at getting the throne, and since you know my secret, I pretty much have no option but killing you.”  
             “Or, you could let me go?” The Avatar replies with hope in his voice.  
             “Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”  
             “Fine. But, if you’re gonna kill me anyway, can you at least tell me your name?”  
             Gabriel thinks this over for a second, but, hey, he’s about to kill him anyway so why not? “The name’s Gabriel. Gabriel Tianshi.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short, I'm sorry, but the next chapter is hella long so please don't be mad at me. ^_^;  
> Also, some FYIs: In parentheses are the character's thoughts written from third person (kinda), and Tianshi is I think Chinese for angel. I'm not that creative.

Michael knows that he isn’t going to last long, and that this whole plan was destined to fail from the start (the plan being going after the Avatar with no back-up and nothing resembling anything close an actual plan), but Gabriel needs this.  
             Since Lucifer (damn the stuck-up brat) traumatized him, Gabriel hasn’t been able to think of anything besides capturing the Avatar. It’s annoying as hell, but he’ll endure it if it means he can help his favorite sibling.  
             Since he lost his own son a few years back, Gabriel is all he has left.

“Wait, what?” is the first phrase that comes to mind when Sam hears the last name “Tianshi.” It’s the name of _the_ royal family, as in the _Fire Nation Royal Family_. Gabriel just shrugs in response and drags Sam down by the front of his shirt so that he has better access to Sam’s neck (just so he has better access to slit the guy’s throat, no homoerotic subtext here) (that last thing was a lie there is a lot of homoerotic subtext here and Gabriel knows it) ( _damn_ this Avatar has a kissable neck). “As in _Lucifer Tianshi_?”  
             “Yep, that’s my older brother. Burning towns and families alive for the fun of it.”  
             “It doesn’t sound like you like him very much.”  
             “I don’t,” Gabriel replied with an air of contempt in his voice, as though just thinking about the older man disgusted him. “But, hey, like I said, you’re my last shot at regaining my honor, and it wouldn’t bode too well with Luci if I brought back the Avatar and proceeded to openly despise him behind his back. So, instead, I do it _silently_ behind his back.”  
             “But isn’t that basically the same thing…?”  
             “Shut up. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”  
             “He’s your brother, man. If you actually feel like you hate him and it’s because of something he’s done, besides the fact that he’s murdering people night and day through this war, then he’s sure as hell not acting like you’re his family,” Sam replies, the side of him that acknowledges emotions that Dean usually keeps bottled up (which is almost every emotion, so therefore Dean hates this side of Sam’s personality, but whatever) takes over, which only seems to make his situation worse.  
             “Don’t fucking talk about my family like you know anything about us!” Gabriel snarls, punching Sam in the jaw with a surprising amount of force. Sam falls back onto his elbows and Gabriel is about to stab him like he did to Zachariah when a gust of wind comes at him. Gabriel defends himself via the water he was about to use to get his stab on, and glares sharply at Sam before disappearing into the nearby thick forest.

It took less than half the time it took last time for Dean and Cas to slip past the older guy and go after Sam, but it still did take a while and Cas now has a minor burn on his arm. Cas does his airbending-thingy and attacks the short guy _who's about to fucking stab his brother_ , and Dean turns around to see if the older guy’s gonna come at ‘em, but the guy’s gone. When he whips his head to look back at Sam, the shortie’s gone, too. But, Sam’s alive, and Cas has a wound that needs tending to, and he’d rather deal with that then look for a re-match at the moment.

When Michael looks over, Gabriel’s sprinting off into the forest. He sighs and goes after him, skidding down the side of a small hill and hurrying into the thick underbrush of still-young trees and overgrown weeds.  
             Once he’s far enough in, he calls out Gabriel’s name and waits for a reply. When one doesn’t come, he tries again, and again, but he gives up his search after an hour.  
             If Gabriel needs him, he’ll be at the ship, sitting there with a cup of tea and a game of Pai Sho set up.

Raphael enters her older brother’s chambers. “What do you need, Lucifer?” she inquires flatly.  
             “That’s Fire Lord Lucifer to you,” he replies with a smirk.  
             Raphael crosses her arms. “What do you need, Fire Lord Lucifer?” she repeats with fake sweetness. Raphael is still technically Lucifer’s subordinate, but, to be honest, Lucifer prefers her thinly-veiled hatred of taking orders from him (it was no secret that, if given the chance, Raphael would gladly take the throne from Lucifer and use any means necessary to do so) over the range of other reactions he receives when he gives orders. It gives him more than enough excuses to make thingy unnecessarily difficult for her.  
             “Well, Gabriel hasn’t come back with the Avatar yet, and I’ve decided that it’s been long enough of a wait. I want you to find the Avatar, kill his two companions, and bring our brothers back to be formally executed for failing me. Do not repeat Zachariah’s failure. Are we clear?”  
             “Yes, sir,” she replies with just a hint of contempt in her voice. (I would also have you kill yourself, he adds mentally, but that would take away _my_ chance to kill you when you finally challenge me to a duel.) Raphael turns on her heel and leaves the room quickly, which leaves Lucifer to continue his usual game of terrifying his newest servants in every way possible.


	3. Chapter 3

After the whole fiasco with Gabriel, who Sam has now given the identity of to both his brother and Castiel, the trio starts heading north. Sam still secretly wants Gabriel to teach him the next element, but he now knows just how bad an idea that it. The guy almost killed him, for Christ’s sake! Either way, they’re the majority of the way to the Northern Water Tribe.  
             “Dean,” Sam says out of the blue, “I want you to teach me earthbending.”  
             “Sam, you know I’m not gonna do that!”  
             “But we had a deal!”  
             “Yeah, well, I’ll teach you after you master waterbending, and even then only if we can’t find anyone better!”  
             “I haven’t mastered anything!” Sam almost shouts, exasperated.  
             “Then what the hell do you call what you can do with airbending and firebending?”  
             “Slight technical knowledge!!”  
             “What do you mean _slight techni_ —“  
              “Sam is right, Dean,” Castiel interjects, ignoring the tail end of their conversation. “It will still take a long time for us to reach the North Pole, so getting Sam started on another element as soon as possible will be helpful. We do not know the Fire Lord’s plans, so it would be wise to be as prepared as possible for when the time comes for Sam to fight.”  
             Dean glares sharply at Castiel but eventually nods. “Yeah, fine. I’ll start teaching you the next time we’re on solid ground.”  
             “The next time we’re on solid ground” comes a lot faster than any of them predicted. The trio starts to see ash falling from the sky, and not long after that they see the barricade. A huge line of Fire Navy ships are all stationed not far from the Earth Kingdom coast, and clearly they are headed northwards.  
             “It’s a siege…” Dean breaths out, hardly believing that this is actually happening. “There’s a fucking siege of the North Pole going on.”  
             Dean turns Impala around and they start flying back towards the earth Kingdom as fast as she’ll allow. “Nope, no way. We are _not_ dealing with that right now.”  
             “Dean, stop! Just let me go Avatar State and I’ll kick their ass or something!”  
             “Sammy, there is no way in Hell that you’re ready for that big of a battle! For now, they’ll just have to save themselves. After you know waterbending, then we’ll actually be able to help. Until then, we’re hiding out and staying safe.” Sam could try to change Dean’s mind, but he knows it wouldn’t work, so he lets the matter drop. He also notices Castiel’s eyes looking over the huge fleet with an unreadable expression.  
            The trio lands on the Earth Kingdom coastline and then wanders around a little until they come across a decent place to make camp. The night is uneventful to say the most, and the next day Dean attempts at explaining how to earthbend to Sam.  
             “It’s like, uh, you’ve gotta be stubborn. You gotta punch right through it. As in, literally. You’ve gotta treat it like there’s only one way to do whatever you’re doing and punching right through rock is the way to do it. Got it?”  
             “If that’s all you’ve got as far as explaining goes, then yeah, I think I see what you mean,” Sam replies in a slightly exasperated tone.  
             “Okay, good. Now punch through this rock.” Dean lifts and then drops a bolder right in front of Sam.  
             Sam stares at it for a minute before half-heartedly punching it.  
             Nothing happens.  
             “Uh, Dean, I don’t think it’s working…” Sam explains while poking at the rock with his toe.  
             Dean groans. “That’s because you’re doing it wrong! Here, it’s like this.” Dean walks up to the giant rock and throws his fist at it resolutely, and the rock cracks and shatters into a bunch of small pebbles. “See? You’ve gotta be stubborn. Fearless. You’re in charge of the rock, it ain’t in charge of you.”  
             Sam sighs and tries again, this time widening his stance and then punching another rock with all the strength he can muster, only for the rock to do nothing, again. He then yelps in pain and shakes his hand violently while glaring at his brother. “You suck at teaching.”  
             Dean throws his hands up. “Why do you think I didn’t want to teach you? You need a master, not a shitty bender like me!” Castiel narrows his eyes at Dean but doesn’t comment.  
             “Dean, just tell me how to do this in a way that _I_ can understand,” Sam says. Dean takes a deep breath and nods, and the two get to work.  
             By nightfall, Sam can successfully hit a rock (and crack it sorta) without almost breaking his hand in the process, and Cas’s lack of commentary has Dean worrying.  
             “Hey, man, you okay?” Dean inquires as they finish off whatever greenery Cas found and Dean cooked for dinner. Sam has long since gone to sleep, and, due to their location, which is a good while in each direction from any town, the two could be considered alone with their thoughts aside from one another.  
             “Yes, Dean. Why do you ask?”  
             “You’ve been quiet. Like, really, really, quiet.”  
             Cas frowns. “Dean,” he starts after a minute or so, “do you really think that lowly of yourself?”  
             Dean turns towards him in surprise. “What do you mean?”  
             “You said earlier that you are a terrible bender, but I know from personal experience that that is incorrect. You are a very powerful bender with more than enough raw skill to give the Avatar at least a firm foundation from which he can truly master earthbending, if he can’t master it from your teaching alone.”  
             Dean huffs a small, disbelieving laugh. “Cas, what’s up? Do you need money or something? ‘Cuz you don’t need to butter me up first if you’re gonna ask for something.”  
             “Dean, do you truly not know how well you are able to earthbend? You can easily create structures that would take others years to figure out with an instructor, much less on their own as you have.”  
             Dean gives him a disbelieving look. “What do you mean? I can only do basic stuff. I mean, most of I what I know I just picked up from watching badger-moles. Nothing I can do is too advanced.” Cas gives him a bitchface, this being something he’s probably picked up from Sam, and uses his staff and bending to throw a random medium-sized rock at Dean. Dean, who has no time to dodge properly, punches the rock and the damn thing _shatters_ like glass.  
             “Would you not call that even slightly advanced?”  
             “How the Hell is that ‘advanced’?”  
             “Most would attempt to dodge, even if it was a futile action, but instead you managed to shatter it. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but that does not seem to be the simplest of all things to do with a rock that is coming straight at you with a high velocity.”  
             “Then that was dumb luck. It wasn’t skill, Cas. Trust me.”  
             Castiel is clearly becoming annoyed. “Dean, if you are so terrible at earthbending, how did you manage to get out of that metal tin during the fight with Zachariah?” he asks tightly, moving into Dean’s personal space and giving him another bitchface.  
             “I- uh, um—“  
             “Exactly. Metal is not an element with the option of bending, so your only way out of that container was earthbending, which you managed to do without touching any earth. There is no way someone at the skill level you are describing yourself to be at would be able to manage that.” Then Cas turns on his heel and, due to his close proximity, if he had had long hair it would have slapped Dean’s face.  
             “Uh, Cas, hey, wait!” Dean calls out as he starts going after Castiel.  
             Cas turns to face him with an annoyed look still clear as day on his face even with the lack of lighting. “No. I’m going to go to sleep now, and overnight I want you to think over what I’ve said. When you realize that I’m right some time just before dawn and it gets through your thick skull that you are not as worthless as you depict yourself to be, I’ll be waiting in my tent for you to come apologize for acting like such an _assbutt_ to yourself and for greatly annoying Sam and I both in the process. Until then, I’m not talking to you.” And then Cas goes into his tent, closes it, and proceeds to attempt falling sleep. Dean puts out the fire, sulkily walks back to his own tent with his metaphorical tail between his legs, and lies on his side for roughly an hour contemplating his life and decisions before finally passing out.

It’s the next morning and Dean wakes up with Cas and what he said still on his mind. However, during the night, Cas’s lecture became less and less serious in his head than it was originally and the last thing he can remember from his dream is Cas telling him off one more time while he lifts off Dean’s shirt and bites his neck and—Nope, no, he isn’t going to think about that.  
             Dean gets up and throws on the same thing as yesterday before going outside to hunt around their little campsite for more fruits and veggies for a nice, free breakfast. He’s in the middle of picking some low-hanging apples from a tree when he feels something hard hit the back of his head and then everything’s going black.

When Dean wakes up again, this time he’s in some kind of container. He groans internally, thinking “not again” as he remembers the battle against Zachariah. He hits the wall and, yep, it’s metal. He’s screwed.  
             “Hey, uh, Dean, Castiel?” Dean hears a familiar voice say.  
             “Yeah, Sammy, I’m here! Are you okay?” Dean responds rapidly.  
             “Uh, yeah, I’m good, but do you know if Cas is here?”  
             “Yes, Sam, I am present,” comes a low, gravelly voice from somewhere left of Dean’s container.  
             “Are you okay, Cas?” Dean asks, clearly worried.  
             “Dean, if you are inquiring as to whether or not I am injured, the answer is yes.”  
             “Wait, they hurt you?” Dean confirms in surprise. As far he as he can tell, both he and Sam are fine.  
             “Well, I’m not hurt, and it doesn’t sound like Dean is, so why’re you?” Sam questions.  
             “I believe it is because I woke up during our abduction.”  
             “Did you see who took us?” Sam prods hopefully.  
             “Yes, but it wasn’t a very good look. I believe we are all in metal contain—“  
             “Shut your mouths!” Comes a foreign voice from somewhere behind Dean. “If you ladies are done with your small talk, I thought you might like to know that we can still hear you.”  
             “Then why the fuck did you take us?!” Sam asks harshly.  
             Another foreign voice announces while chuckling, “There’s a mighty big reward for whoever brings the Avatar and company to the nearest Fire Nation battalion.”  
             “I’m not the Avatar!” Sam shouts in the most convincing tone he can muster.  
             “There’s no point in tryin’ to fool us. We’ve been watching you for long enough to know whether or not you’re the Avatar. Hell, you three don’t shut up much at all about your fuckin’ _training_ or whatever,” the second voice answers in a southern drawl.  
             “Okay, fine, so I’m the Avatar,” Sam replies in an annoyed tone after a beat. “Why the Hell are you turning me in? I’m pretty much your last hope of beating Lucifer.”  
             “We gave up on beating the Fire Lord a _long_ time ago. And, you know what they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” says the first voice.  
             “No, they say if you can’t beat ‘em the first time then try and try again until they’re stranded on an island so they can starve to death,” Dean mumbls sharply. It pisses him off when others just give up and give in to the Fire Lord and act like the war’s lost already. It’s fucking stupid, and anyone who’s not gonna fight ‘til the end doesn’t deserve the right to fight at all.  
             Sam and their two captors continue arguing until one of them bangs on Sam’s container and tells him to shut up, and then the other starts talking about maybe keeping “the one with the arrows” like he’s come kind of slave if the Fire nation troops will let him and Dean’s _really_ angry now. So, Dean punches the wall of his container in his anger and, much to his surprise, it actually _dents_. As in, it bends and moves like normal earth does when he punches it. So Dean tries again, and it works again. Then Dean grabs two fistfuls of metal, and their captors have noticed something’s going on now and they’re stopping, and he yanks off that side of the container.  
             Then he kicks ass.  
             As soon as their captors have their faces being pushed into what’s left of the former container and are trapped there by the side Dean had ripped off, then Dean rips off the sides of Cas’s and Sam’s containers as well and makes sure they’re okay.  
             “Cas, you’re okay, right? You said that they hurt you.” Dean asks with masked concern. Cas’s only response is to gesture to the cut on his forehead, right above his eyebrow. “But you’re good aside from that?”  
             “My head is radiating pain from that area outwards, but besides that I am, in fact, unharmed.” Dean’s eyebrows furrow and he mumbles under his breath about having to go into a town for some kind of medicine.  
             Meanwhile, Sam is staring in fascination and glee at the sight of the two idiots who tried to catch them struggling against the piece of mangled metal preventing them from moving. “Dean, how the hell did you do this?” Sam asks as he moves around to look at the spectacle from all sides. “I though earthbending doesn’t include metals.”  
             “What do you mean, ‘doesn’t _include_ metals?’ Bending metal is like a whole ‘nother thing, isn’t it?” Dean answers.  
             “Well, metal is technically earth. It’s all messed up and changed, yeah, but it’s still earth," Sam informs him.  
             Dean shrugs in light of the new information. “I guess if it’s earth, we can bend it.”  
             Cas glances sharply at Dean. “Please don’t tell me you’re implying that this is a common occurrence.”  
             “Well, yeah. Why not?”  
             “Dean, I have heard of metalbending before, and it is only practiced by those who have mastered earthbending thoroughly. If you can do this, it only reinforces the fact that you are actually an earthebending master, even without any formal training.”  
             “Cas—“  
             “No, Dean. You’re good at this. Just admit it to yourself.” Dean stands there silently for a moment, then, slowly, he nods, and Castiel smiles at him. “You deserve to praise yourself more often than you do.” The two share eye contact for just too much time to be normal, and Sam internally groans, knowing that these two are gonna eye-fuck for _months_ before they get over themselves and just kiss already.

Raphael watches as a small fleet of Fire navy ships is prepared and filled with the supplies needed for the journey she would be embarking on. She held her head high and shoulders back with an air of imperialism as she waited for the final men to be recruited and brought on board one of the five ships and for the final provisions to be locked in store rooms deep under the decks. According to one of the five captains of her small fleet they would be ready for departure soon, but each second was beginning to feel like an eternity. Her brother could be fickle, and has been known to sometimes cancel voyages at the last second that have taken months to plan. The fact alone that he asked her to do this without Crowley breathing down her neck the whole time was surprising enough, so she’d rather leave as soon as possible to prevent him from changing his mind.  
             Finally, one of the captains jogs up the steps to the ledge hanging over the port she has observing stiffly and informs her that they are ready to leave. Raphael takes off in the direction of the largest ship and smirks to herself as she boards it.  
             Time to make history.

Michael was happily waiting on the deck of the ship currently in the use of his younger brother. Oh course, he became less happy to wait when he overheard some of the crew discussing a recent order from the Fire Lord that said Michael and Gabriel were to be brought to him, dead or alive and by any means possible, as quickly as was probable. They were also discussing the reward that came with the successful capture of the two brothers. And that’s why he is now running (after changing out of his Fire Nation clothing and into refugee-like clothing because otherwise someone would harm him probably), along with a bag containing his most prized possessions (mainly his tea supplies and other food items and some more clothes and some of Gabe’s stuff), into the woods he last saw his younger brother go inside.  
             He runs to the nearest village and starts asking anyone and everyone if they’ve seen his little brother and provides a short (no pun intended) description of him, but after ten minutes of frantic searching he begins to lose hope. Eventually he comes across someone who might have seen Gabriel; however, after he follows up on what the man said, he only finds a man who looks _similar_ to Gabriel. Soon after this he leaves the village and moves onto the next, and gets through one or two more before he gives up and finds an inn to stay at. On a whim he asks if the woman running the inn if she has seen his brother and provides a description yet again, and not only does she reply yes but also she gives him his location! He thanks her hurriedly and offers to make her tea later before setting off.

Gabriel knew he was acting like a moody child when he ran off, but the actual impact of what a disadvantage he was at didn’t hit him until an hour or so later. He’d heard Michael calling for him in the forest and had used the sound of his voice to avoid him. Right now he needs to be alone, and Michael’s tea and philosophy and soul-searching shit isn’t going to help.  
             He walks until he gets out of the forest and enters a small village. This is when he notices his main disadvantage.  
             He’s still dressed in full Fire Nation garb, so it shouldn’t surprise him this much when he notices people staring. He really notices his problem when someone throws something at him. And so, he does what any logical person would do in this situation.  
             He lies.  
             He says, with little to no prompt, that he’s originally from the Earth Kingdom and was taken and sold into slavery on a Fire Nation ship when he was young and that he has recently escaped using the clothing he is currently wearing. People, luckily, believe him and, unluckily, take pity on him, much to his disgust, and give him a change of clothes and a place to sleep for the night. Overall, it’s been one of his better plans.  
             He moves onto the next village the following morning so that no one has the chance to ask questions about his story, and he stays there for the next few days.  
That is, he’s there until Michael comes barging in.

Michael comes bursting through the door with the looks of fear and anger trying to both be expressed at once by his facial muscles (spoiler alert—it isn’t working and he looks like he bit into the hottest pepper known to man). His shoulders are rigid, his mouth is set in a line, and his brows are furrowed in a way that only he can manage to make seem ‘menacing.’ However, his eyes are wide open, and it really sends mixed signals as far as expressions go.  
             “Gabriel, what the fuck are you doing?” He yells as loudly as possible without the outside world hearing.  
             (Well, damn, Gabriel thinks. Michael only curses when he’s _really_ pissed.) “I, uh, was blowing off steam?” Gabriel provides pathetically.  
             “You ran off! A day or so I would have understood, but I have been waiting on that boat with an apparently mutinous crew for almost a week!”  
             “Wait, what do you mean ‘mutinous’?”  
             “I’m getting to that. Don’t try to change the subject!” Gabriel holds up his hands in surrender. “What were you _thinking_ , Gabriel?” Michael demands, calmer this time. “You could have been found out and killed or worse!”  
             “What’s worse than dying?” Gabriel replies incredulously.  
             “Our sister.” Michael responds flatly.  
             “Oh.”  
             “Yeah, ‘oh.’ A bounty has been put on our heads, and a large one, at that. If you go running off again, you could be packaged and delivered with a bow to our ever-so-lovely brother and sister who will spend the next few years happily torturing us until we can’t remember our own names, only the recollections of pain and suffering. Do you understand the situation now?” Michael asks hurriedly.  
             “Uh, yeah, I thin—“  
             “Good. Now, we need to get moving. Someone could figure out our identities at any given moment.” Michael rushes Gabriel to collect the few items he had scattered about the room and then nearly shoves him out of the small, singular entrance. The two leave the inn at the fastest speed they can achieve while still pretending to act normal, and once they’re out of eyeshot they start running like Hell to God knows where.  
             “Where the fuck are we going?!” Gabriel exclaims between deep breaths after a few minutes of running.  
             “Somewhere where no one will find us!” Michael declares with a determined look. However, that look is wiped off of his face and is replaced by fear a moment later.  
             “Did you really think you could escape me that easily?” A tall, dark woman announces as she, along with what looks like a sizable cluster of Fire Nation soldiers, comes to stand in front of them.  
             Gabriel scowls as Michael slowly stops and acknowledges her, spitting out her name, “Raphael.”

“What were you going to do, Michael? Just grab little baby Gabriel by the hand and run off into the sunset, going somewhere no one will recognize you or need the money offered for your body, dead or alive?” Raphael inquires with a tone mixed between one of pity and one of utter disgust.  
             “Well, we weren’t going to run off into the sunset,” Michael replies, crossing his arms over his chest. He’s too old for this, dammit. Why does he have to be related to the damn Fire Lord? It leads to far too much drama, in his opinion.  
             Raphael tsks. “You always have been too cocky for your own good.”  
             “ _I_ always have been? May I remind you that I was present when you first tried to firebend and caught your skirt on fire?” Raphael blushes at that, but shakes it off and continues nevertheless.  
             “You are a disgrace to our family name. You too, Gabriel.”  
             Gabriel rolls his eyes. “At least I don’t interchange between trying to kick Luci’s ass and kissing it.”  
             Raphael huffs and draws herself to her full height. “I’ll make you regret saying that,” she announces.  
             “I’d like to see you try,” Gabriel almost growls, his eyes glancing at the setting sun. He’s about to be in his element, and if she’s going to fight him like this, then she’s stupider than he previously thought.  
             Raphael follows the direction of his glance and he can almost see the gears turning in her head. “I would challenge you to an Agni Kai, but since you can’t even bend fire I won’t bother. It’s getting late; we’ll fight tomorrow at day break, if you two haven’t run away like the cowards you are by then, that is.”  
             “No, how about we fight right now?” Gabriel pushes, making sure he has his bending water at the ready.  
             Raphael scans the ever-darkening sky once again, clearly becoming nervous, and responds sharply, “I know what you’re trying to do.”  
             “And what’s that?” Gabriel replies coyly.  
             “Once the moon rises you’ll be much more powerful.”  
             “Yeah, and? You’re doing the same damn thing. You want to fight in the morning so you’ll have the big fireball in the sky on your side, but if you want a snowball’s chance in Hell you better attack now, bitch, because I’m gonna come at you whether or not you attack first.” Michael looks at Gabriel with a mildly shocked expression that’s mixed with pride, but Raphael looks like someone just told her she’s not a legitimate heir to the throne.  
             “First of all, you will _not_ speak to _me_ in such a manner, you _disgr_ —“  
             Raphael’s ranting gets cut off when an ice shard flies by her face, cutting a clean line across her cheek. The moon is up, the sun is down, and so, as far as Gabriel’s concerned, it’s time to fight.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am really sorry this took so long! I've been trying to write ahead so this won't happen again. I'm trying a different format this time, so tell me in the comments if it's easier to read or anything.

Raphael retaliates by sending a strong blast of fire Gabriel’s way. Gabriel dodges and throws more shards of ice at her general area. The results are her setting a tree on fire and he stabbing one of her minions in the shoulder. The fiery tree is helpful to Gabe, however, since it assists Gabriel in seeing a nearby pond, which is great since he’s going to be running low on bending water in the near future.

  
Gabriel kind of nudges Michael, who hasn’t really moved since the fight started for whatever reason (Maybe old age is finally getting to him, Gabriel thinks). Michael snaps out of whatever daze he was in and looks away from the burning tree and towards the water, and then kinda-sorta nods to show Gabriel that he understands. It’s great to have siblings who understand your body language so fluently, Gabriel thinks, until he notices that Raphael’s figured out what’s going on and has also noticed the convenient source of water.

  
Raphael tries her hardest to keep Gabriel away from the water (via she and her men throwing fireballs at him non-stop for a good few minutes), but with Michael’s help her efforts are in vain and now Gabriel’s having a lovely time kicking ass. He’s got the octopus-kinda thing going on with his bending, aka a bunch of extra watery arms are surrounding him as he stands next to the pond, and he’s using the seemingly endless supply of water to punch each soldier helping Raphael and then to pin them down by freezing the water, trapping them. It’s a good working system, too, ‘til Raphael decides to step up her game.

  
She’s organized her men so they’re not attacking Gabriel mindlessly, which his attack strategy is kind of counting on. Now they’re all firing well-aimed blasts of fire (which is completely not okay by his standards) at his neat-o octa-man water-suit (you don’t attack a man’s Goddamn octaman-suit!) and it’s becoming a bit difficult to protect himself, much less attack. Meanwhile, Michael is trying to fend off a couple soldiers that got behind them to probably attempt a sneak-attack. Their attack strategy didn’t work, of course, so Michael's dealing with them and it’s proving challenging to do that while he’s simultaneously trying to help Gabriel in whatever way he can.

  
With her small cluster of soldiers effectively keeping Michael and Gabriel pinned to where they stand, apparently Raphael finally feels comfortable taking a few risks. She comes out to stand in front of her soldiers and starts with dishing out fireballs like the rest of them, but next there’s suddenly a big flash of blue light and the ground next to where Gabriel was standing a second ago is scorched beyond compare. Gabriel glimpses at the spot with worry written across his face and Michael hisses “lightening” under his breath like the very word is too foul to pronounce.

  
Raphael keeps trying to kill them with lightening at random intervals, so Gabriel currently has to jump from place to place and look like an idiot while still using his octa-water-arms to put out any fire blasts headed his and Michael’s way. Michael seems much calmer than he since Michael’s just standing in one spot and expertly defending (as well as one can with the limited defense moves firebending provides) and attacking. A sharp laugh coming from the only woman present (that’s not some clone-like soldier) breaks Gabriel’s concentration and forces him to look at his sister. “You can always surrender, you know. You must have figured out by now that Lucifer only cares that I bring back your bodies, dead _or_ alive!”

  
Gabriel glares at her and chances shooting a jet of water at her. He misses, but the jet _does_ manage to distract her long enough for Michael to hit her with a whip-like firebending move. She groans loudly and clutches her arm, and some of her soldiers stop firing in order to come help her. Raphael keeps yelling at them to continue attacking, but they’re too preoccupied with trying to help her with her major injury that they don’t seem to notice.

  
While most of her soldiers are distracted, Michael and Gabriel run off into the dense forest, leaving nothing but a large puddle of water in their wake.

\--

Since Dean’s amazing exploit of metalbending power and Cas’s subsequent mini-rant, Dean has been trying harder and harder to not treat himself like shit. So far, he’s actually started to receive compliments (pertaining to his bending ability, usually) without instantly arguing that he doesn’t deserve any praise, and for that Castiel is proud of him. It’s been a week since the “incident,” and Sam is becoming somewhat annoyed that the two haven’t done something about their obvious more-than-platonic feelings for one another yet.

  
One night, Sam is helping Dean clean up the fire-pit and leftover food before they go to sleep. Dean has a huge, dopey smile on his face because Cas gave him praise on being able to handle praise over dinner.

  
“Dean, do you have a crush on Cas?” Sam inquires flat out. With Dean, it’s good to be direct, Sam finds.

  
“W-What?!” Dean sputters. “Of course not! Why do you ask?” His voice sounds strange when he asks the question, as though he’s trying to appear less interested than he really is in the answer.

  
“You two stare at each other all the time like you’re memorizing each other’s faces and you’ve been smiling stupidly for the past hour or so.” Sam tells him flatly. “Dean, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were in love.”

  
Dean looks horrified. It’s quite funny to watch the change of expressions from smile to confused and forced-looking scowl take place on Dean’s face, Sam thinks. “Dude, what the fuck! I’m not gay!”

  
Sam rolls his eyes. “There are other sexualities besides gay and straight, you know.”

  
“No, jus—just no—We are _not_ talking about this right now!”

  
“Dean, why not? It’s better you confront this now rather than later when it might actually cause problems.”

  
“Because you’re my _little brother_ and I’m not—“

  
“I’m not a little kid, Dean! Don’t use me as an excuse to not deal with your feelings!”

  
“I’m not! I just, I don’t— _fuck_!” Dean stops talking and starts pacing, walking back and forth in front of Sam and getting faster with each step as he mutters under his breath ("Does he look at me a lot? Do I look at him too much—? Wait, fuck, we do, don’t we…").

  
From the bits Sam is comprehending of Dean’s rambling, he guesses that Dean is finally pulling his head out of the sand and is figuring out that he may have more-than-platonic feelings for Castiel.

  
“It’s too _fucking late_ for this!”

  
Sam jumps slightly in surprise at his brother’s sudden outburst and ensuing march into his tent. Sam can still hear some quiet mumbling, but not many sounds of movement, so he assumes Dean is trying to fall asleep and follows suit.

\--

The next morning, Dean wakes up to a strong gust of air blowing through his tent and demolishing it, the fabric and sticks in all falling to enclose and swaddle him. He swears loudly and indignantly as he fights against the net-like hold of the demolished tent. He hears heavy footsteps rush over right before he feels someone tugging and yanking at the tent along with him.

  
Sam hurriedly apologizes as he pulls blindly at the pieces of tent nearly choking his brother. Finally, he manages to get it off, and finds himself face-to-face with a very angry (and grumpy) Dean.

  
“What the _fuck_ was that?!” Dean demands, shoving himself to his feet and stepping out of the wreckage that was his shelter.

  
“Uh, sorry, I’ve been practicing airbending,” Sam replies with a lopsided grin. “I’m mastering a few of the harder moves Cas showed me earlier.”

  
“And what stupid _trick_ caused _that_?” He motions towards the heap of cloth.

  
“Well, —“

  
“I’m afraid I do not know the name of the ‘trick,’ as you called it, but I can say that Sam executed it remarkably,” Cas interjects, air quotes included via hand motions.

  
“It’s one of the few pseudo-offensive airbending moves,” Sam explains. “It’s like…sending a regular gust of air, but you do this kind of weird spin-thing and aim it directly at someone’s feet. I misaimed and the gust went under your tent.” He grins sheepishly.

  
Dean huffs. “Next time you wanna practice, how about you do it _away_ from camp? Or, better yet, why not try the moves on your instructor?” He gestures towards Cas.

  
“He hardly needs the practice, Dean,” Cas announces as he glances at Sam with pride. “He’s perfected aierbending.”

  
“More or less,” Sam adds modestly.

  
Dean’s frown melts into a smile. “That’s great, Sammy! You’ll be kicking Fire Lord ass in no time!” He claps Sam on the back and pulls him into a short-lived hug which Sam returns gratefully.

  
The rest of the day is spent packing up the camp, heading into a town, picking up copious amounts of alcohol, and having a mini celebration while they fly to their next campsite.

  
“Hey, Cas?”

  
“Yes, Dean?”

  
“Isn’t today some kind of solar thing?”

  
Sam rolls his eyes. “Today’s a solstice, Dean.”

  
“The winter solstice, to be exact,” Cas adds.

  
“Oh. Cool.” Dean nods appreciatively and the three continue their previous conversation of random trivia from Cas and Sam, witty one-liners from Dean, and stories of past funny and/or strange events from all three.

  
The happy atmosphere they’ve created continues as they settle down for the night in a cheap inn (Dean’s tent is still broken and no one wants to sleep outside or get squished against someone else in a hardly-big-enough-for-one tent). Dean falls asleep almost immediately when his body hits the nice, soft bed (it looks easy, but steering Impala can wear one out). Cas does the same five minutes later, but for some reason Sam can’t seem to follow suit.

  
He stares blankly at the ceiling for a while before, on a sleep-deprived whim, he decides to meditate. He’s heard Cas talk about meditating before and how it could help him with his Avatar stuff, but he’s never actually tried it before. Well, there’s a first time for everything, he decides as he sits on his bed with his legs crossed.

  
Nothing happens at first. He just stares at the back of his eyelids like something’s going to happen, but nothing does. So he re-positions himself a few times. When still nothing happens, he decides it’s a lost cause and attempts to go back to sleep.

  
Then, something _does_ happen: abruptly, he’s no longer in a comfortable yet clearly cheap bed in some random inn. He’s in what looks like some kind of temple. He looks down at his hands and sees that they’re kinda bluish, and not only that but transparent! Not totally, but enough so that it has the effect of him looking like a ghost.

  
Sam rapidly turns around and gets a good look at where he is. There are a great deal of symbols of fire and the like, so he assumes he must be inside some kind of firebender temple which, if this is some Avatar-related business, makes sense. He seems to be alone, so he starts wandering around. He’s sure he’s never seen or been in this place before, but it feels familiar somehow…

  
“That’s because the Avatar never truly dies. Our life is a continuous cycle. When an Avatar dies, we are reborn at the same time in a new body,” states a male voice matter-of-factly. Sam starts and scrambles to face whoever he heard. However, he doesn’t see anyone.

  
“Um,” he calls, “are you a spirit?” (It’s worth a try asking questions, he decides.)

  
“You can call us that; it fits, after all.” It’s a woman’s voice this time.

  
“Wait, so there’s more than one of you?” Sam shouts into what seems to be the empty temple.

  
“Woah, hey, don’t shout! We’re right here.” Says a third voice, another male.

  
“We’re _you_.” It’s the female voice again. Sam spins around again to try and figure out where the voices are coming from, but when he comes full circle there’s a girl standing in front of him. “Hi,” she greets with a smile. “Pamela Buniq, Southern Water Tribe. Two incarnations before you.” It makes sense. She’s wearing Water Tribe clothing, including the little container/sack-thing where he assumes she keeps (or would keep if she wasn’t a spirit, or maybe she keeps water in it just in case?) her bending water. However, her eyes are shut. Sam stares at her in confusion, but when he turns his head slightly he sees another person, male this time.

  
“Kevin Tran, Southern Air Temple. Three incarnations before you,” states the first voice, which he can now match to a face. Sam can see the tip of a blue arrow on his forehead, but the rest is covered up with dark hair, kind of like with Castiel.

  
“Chuck Shén, Earth Kingdom. One incarnation before you.” Sam whips his head around to see a second man standing near the girl, Pamela. “Welcome to the spirit world,” he declares (this is the second guy Sam heard, he concludes) with a gesture of his arms.

  
“Spirit world?” Sam asks in confusion.

  
“Yeah,” Kevin replies, “it’s where forest spirits and animal spirits and us kind of hang around after we d—“

  
“No, I know what it is,” Sam interjects. “Sorry,” he adds when he sees Kevin’s semi-offended look at being cut off. “But how did I get here?”

  
“It’s the Winter Solstice, which means the Spirit and normal worlds are closest together today,” Pamela explains. “You’ve never entered here before, right?” Sam shakes his head. “Well, we’re here to give you advice, more or less.”

  
“How so?” Sam inquires.

  
“We don’t have much time,” Chuck announces quickly when Pamela opens her mouth to explain more. “You’ll exit the Spirit World when the tomorrow begins, and it’s already very late in the human world.”

  
“In a nutshell, there’s a shrine honoring the three of us. The three Avatars who never lived long enough to fulfill their mission. We can explain more there. We’ll have more time,” Kevin declares.

  
“Is there a specific timeframe?” Sam asks.

  
“Yes, you have to get there by the end of this week. The sooner the better. Our two worlds are closest on the solstices, but for some reason we haven’t been able to contact you at all until now. You’re very…spiritually disconnected,” Pamela says with a shrug.

  
“What? Why?” Sam pushes, but Chuck shakes his head.

  
“All will be revealed when you get to the shrine,” he insists. “It’s on a neutral island between the southern tip of the Earth Kingdom, the Southern Air Temple, and the Southern Water Tribe.”

  
“But where are we now?” Sam, again, pushes. He needs more information. “This is some kind of Fire Nation temple, isn’t it?”

  
“We’ll tell you later!” Kevin asserts. “Our time is almost up!”

  
“Go to the island, as quickly as possible! Godspeed!” Chuck warns hurriedly, his voice becoming fainter as he speaks, as though he is drifting away.

  
Then, just like that, they’re gone.

\--

Sam wakes up the following morning (well before sunrise) with his former selves’ warning still ringing in his ears. His first instinct: go tell Dean.

  
“Dean!” He sits bolt upright, shooting out of the bed.

  
“Sam, it’s early! Go back to fuckin’ bed!”

  
“No, Dean! I entered the spirit world last night!”

  
“You _what_?”

  
Cas joins in the conversation with a low grunt. “You entered the spirit world? Did you meet your past lives?”

  
“Yeah! They said we need to get to a certain shrine ASAP!”

  
“Great, so we now have confirmation that even spirits use overused acronyms,” Dean mumbles sarcastically. “Lovely.”

  
“Dean, this is serious,” Sam tsks while Cas groggily agrees.

  
“If Sam says this is serious, we should listen to what he has to say,” Cas declares with fatigue slipping into his voice. “However, if this proves to be nothing…” Cas trails off then suddenly glares at Sam. “Counteractions will be enacted.”

  
“If you say so, Cas. Sammy, you’re up. What does the Spirit Squad have to tell us?” Dean inquires with a sleep-deprived-, shit-eating-grin.

  
Sam glowers. “They told me I have to be at this weird temple as soon as Impala can get us there, like I said.”

  
“Where is it?” Dean asks with a sigh.

  
“South of the Earth Kingdom, on an island that isn’t claimed by any faction. It rests between the Earth, Water, and Air nations, and is equidistant from all three. The faster I get there the better.”

  
“And do you need to go there _right_ now?” Dean asks.

  
“Well, no—“

  
“Then we’ll head there after sun-up. For now, we sleep,” Dean announces with an air of finality. After releasing a small, agitated huff, Sam flops back on his pillow and nods off. Dean and Cas are back to sleep before his head even hits the pillow.

\--

The next morning, the trio wakes up, Sam lagging behind the other two and wishing that he hadn’t been so damn adamant the night before about leaving as quickly as possible. He groggily moves around the room and collects his few possessions as he tries to not give in to the temptation of sleep, while Dean and Cas are evidently having no trouble staying awake (it doesn’t hurt, Sam muses, that every few seconds one is glancing at the other, believing the other won’t notice). It’s a slow morning, and about an hour after Sam is finally moving without almost collapsing every waking moment, they’re on Impala’s saddle and are heading off.


	5. Uhhhh hi

So this has been dead for three years now, and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but if I have time and find a beta, I might finish what I started w this fic. I'm a very different writer now, so it's still gonna be gay AF, but the style will be more, uh, developed? 

Point is, if y'all are interested enough after all this time for me to get back on this horse, just tell me. If there's no interest, then I might just orphan the fic. 

And if anyone really loves to edit, comment or something, because I'd love to have a beta.


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